Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla has hit back at the United States after Washington filed criminal charges against former Cuban President Raúl Castro over the 1996 downing of two aircraft operated by the group "Brothers to the Rescue."

Parrilla addressed the open debate at the UN Headquarters on "Upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

He labelled the U.S. indictment against Castro morally infamous and legally arbitrary. 

The Cuban top diplomat accused U.S. authorities of abusing the jurisdiction of American courts and manipulating facts surrounding the incident.

Parrilla maintained that the aircraft were shot down within Cuban airspace and maritime territory and accused Washington of concealing what he called the "terrorist and illegal missions" allegedly carried out by the planes in violation of U.S. law.

"It is a politically motivated and fraudulent decision, intended to deceive U.S. and foreign citizens thirty years after the events in question; the vile purpose behind the charges was to secure backing for a military venture against Cuba in pursuit of 'regime change' or what they now euphemistically call 'nation-building."

The U.S. Department of Justice last week indicted Castro, now 94, over the February 1996 incident in which Cuban fighter jets shot down two aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based group opposed to the Cuban government.

At the time of the incident, Castro served as Cuba's Minister of Defence under then President Fidel Castro.